A week in Peru

Friday, June 19, 2015

Compassion International Peru Mission Experience

June 8, 2015

I thought the day would never come to see how God is using the
Compassion Child Survival Program to love on the forgotten.The forgotten here are mothers that live in
remote areas in extreme poverty.The
remote area is just out side of Huancayo in a little village 11,000 Ft above
sea level.It is primarily a poor
farming village of the most amazing people you will ever meet.

On our entry to the village, the mothers, staff, and all the
little babies were standing outside of a small adobe brick building structure,
holding balloons and feverishly waving at our bus..Why were they waving at us and why did they have big smiles on their faces?Oh, my
goodness,when we got off the bus they
hugged us and kissed us on the cheek and the baby/children were smiling.Do they not know, they are the heros, that I
have been waiting to see.Why are they
greeting us in this way.They don’t know
us.They are the heros and yet they treat us like
we are family members whom they have not seen in a long time.

They are my heroes.They
raise their children under extreme conditions (limited food, limited healthy
water, NO HEAT).As a parent I wanted to
make sure my children had the things in life to make them successful.They have to worry about when and what their
child’s next meal is, and if they get sick, how can they get the child to the
medical center and how will they pay for the medication.Can you imagine the anxiety a parent in that
condition would feel?But these mothers
are holding their babies and waving, smiling, and hugging me!What is going on here?

After all the initial hugs and kisses, they showed us all
about the program.They showed us how
the program monitors the health of the pregnant mom and baby after birth.They showed us how to keep the family healthy
by good hygiene and what to do when the child is sick.They also train them to cook and knit/crochet
( I have got to tell Peggy!) to earn a little money for the family.The one thing we heard over and over again
was the fellowship the center provides.They provide discipleship training and most importantly,they show the love of Christ.One mother said even though the church was
right around the corner,she felt
isolated and had no friend.Once she
joined the program she said“I now have
lots of friends that love me!”

Glendy - Right

After the
tour of the program,we were blessed to
do a home visit of one of the mothers participating in the program.Her name was Glendy.She had a 1 year old son.We arrived at her home with many hugs and
kisses.She was so glad to see our
group and so thankful we could come into her home.Very soon into the visit, I was mortified
with their situation.Glendy was a 16 year old single mother.She lived in what was her Grandparents home
(both deceased) with her mother and two siblings.Her father had recently passed away and her
mother was deaf.The only family income
was when her mother got work in the fields and what is equivalent to $33 USD
per month provided by the baby’s father.My heart dropped.How can you
live on that?That is not enough for
just food for the family.I find out during
the meal that to be the case.

The meal that
the Compassion program provided for us contained the first meat that they had
eaten in a very long time.I found out
that all they ate was what the very small garden produces or people give
them.Meat is too expensive for them to
afford.As a result of this diet Glendy
is anemic and malnourished and she cannot produce adequate milk for her
baby.Compassion provides baby formula
for her baby to address the baby’s malnourishment.Glendy
was so thankful for the baby formula and she thanked us so for providing her
baby this.Again can you imagine how it
would feel if you could not even provide basic food for your baby? As our visit
was coming to the end, we asked Glendy for her prayer request.She asked for us to pray that God will
continue to bless her family.

Wow!All I see is hunger; very poor living
conditions, medical condition and she sees the blessings.Forgive me Lord for not having her thankful
spirit!You have given me so much. I
have not ever experienced hunger and most thankful that my children and wife
have not as well.You have blessed me
more than I can imagine.Thank you Lord
for seeing this through Glendy.Now Lord
continue to watch over and bless Glendy and her family.I know that their prayers are a sweet sweet
sound to your ears and give you the glory you deserve.Thank you for putting Glendy in my path!Amen.

As the day proceeds at the Compassion Child Survival Center,
we find out they are happy that their God has used us to help support their
lifeline through the Compassion program.They see us as servants of God.They are thanking us for being obedient to God by doing His work.Oh this is so humbling.I just give $39 dollars a month to Compassion
with little thought and write letters, and pray, and they see me as a servant of
God.They are truly the Servants of
God.They are the Macedonia church of
the bible:

“Now, breathern, we wish to make known to you the grace of
God which has been given in the Churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal
of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the
wealth of their liberality.For I
testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of
their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in
the support of the saints, and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave
themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God.”2
Corinthians 8:1-5

Well it was time to leave this center and wonderful people. I just did not want to leave.The hugs and kisses started again and even
though the bus was just outside it took us some time to make our way
there.What a beautiful Church!!!

Our next destination was a new Compassion Child Sponsorship
Project that has only been in operation for 2 months and they already are
serving 175 5-19 year old children.Upon
our arrival 175 children were in two lines as we entered the building.Each child wanted to shake our hands.That is where I met Willie.He is a 5 year old boy that squeezed my hand
hard and then giggled like crazy.He
sat behind me and kept poking me in the back then when I turned around started
the giggling again.What a joy to be
with Willie.His smile was just
infectious.Everyone was watching him
and when he laughed they laughed.I
don’t know much about Willie but I do know that he needs a sponsor.Actually all 175 kids at this center needs
sponsors.Compassion started this center
with faith that the children will get sponsors.I pray that someone special will sponsor
Willie that will write him often and get to meet him in person someday.They will be in for a treat!

Once again we see the generosity of the members of the
church.This church has just started
the Compassion program and they have already seen the need to expand the
program.We are talking two months of
operation.They have seen God working
and they have wasted no time to join him.While the members are poor financially they are wealthy in their love of
God. They have started bringing
donations of bricks, sand and supplies to church so that they can soon start
the expansion process.What
generosity!They have nothing, but find
a way to give!I would not be surprised
if the Pastor of this Church will soon be in the same position as Moses in
Exodus 36: 5-7 when they had to tell the congregation to stop donating supplies
to the Church because they had enough.Wow, what an interesting building program.

The Lord ended my first day with the smiles of all the
children as we departed this center but the memory of the generosity of the
Church and yes Willie are the highlights of this day.

June 9, 2015,

I woke up on the second morning with a very cold room.I knew it was down in the 30’s outside but
why so cold in my hotel room.What!This Hotel does not have
heat!I am not saying it was not
working, but it had no heat!Actually
none of the homes we visited or will visit on this trip had heat.This is yet another obstacle the poverty in
Huancayo must deal with.I was
complaining when my bare feet stepped on the tile in my hotel bathroom, but
what if I woke up everyday in the winter in this cold and had small
children?The people we visited in
Huancayo did not have a lot of clothing and had only a few blankets on their
bed when they had a bed.Many slept on
the dirt floor.Have you ever went
camping during the winter and laid on the ground?The ground acts like a heat sink pulling the
heat out of your body.You can put a
blanket on the ground but still seems to pull the heat out.As you can see my feet just hit the floor
of my hotel room and God was already preparing me for the day!I had prayed that He show me the people of
Peru through His eyes.He sees their
suffering and made me aware as well.So
now what am I going to do about it?What
is the Church going to do about it?

After an amazing breakfast,we boarded the buses and headed to Rescatando Valores Church to observe
their Compassion Child Sponsor Project.Not until I arrived back home did I realize what their Church name meant
“Saving Values”.As you can just
imagine,the name fit this church perfectly.They taught the children the saving value of
proper hygiene, their culture, skills development and most important the saving
value/grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.They proudly displayed the sponsor letters on the class room walls as
just another reminder that they are loved by God’s people.Once again when we arrived and when we
departed all the children were lined up to shake our hands and give us
hugs.(I tell you, I never got tired of
this and really miss it since I have returned home).

After touring the “Saving Value” Church,we went on a home visit.I was not prepared at all for that
visit.We arrived at a wall with a metal
door.We knocked on the door and two
beautiful girls opened the door and ran to give us all BIG hugs!Their smiles were absolutely beautiful.They were allowed to stay home from school
because they had “special guest” coming to their home today.Maria (age 10) and Betzaida (age 12) were
orphans.Their parents were killed in an
auto accident a few years ago, then they lost their grandparents a year or so
ago.Everyone they loved had been ripped
from their lives leaving only a 20 year old sister, who now had the
responsibility of caring for them.20
Years old!That is the same age as my
daughter Rachel.What a
responsibility!What was equally gut
wrenching was their living conditions.They did have a roof over their head and Compassion provided them beds
but they had no kitchen or bathroom.Their brother would allow them use of the kitchen but they could not eat
any of his food and he would not even allow them use of his refrigerator.I did not see any food anywhere in their
room or in the kitchen.

What was really amazing with these girls was the hope they
had for their future.Because of their
sponsors, they felt they could rise above their current conditions. When I
asked them what they wanted to do when they got older, they both wanted to be
Engineers.This was a common thread we
saw in our project visits.We asked the
children what they wanted to do when they grew up and almost all of the
children state some professional career.

While it is easy to just state I want to be a doctor or
engineer,when you live in poverty, the
biggest battle is not having big dreams to work toward.When hope is gone you resign yourself to
doing just what your family has done for many years thinking that you can not change.These girls have dreams and their “Saving
Value” church and Compassion are keeping them alive even when everything else
has been ripped from them.Lord, thank
you for showing me once again how you can use me to keep children’s dreams
alive.Use me to get more sponsors for
these children so that more Maria’s and Betzaida’s can continue to dream and
see their dreams materialize!

After all the Hugs and Kisses from the children and staff,
we started on our way to another Compassion Learning Center.On the way we stopped at the Regional
Compassion Coordinators
home where he had prepared a Huancayo famous
dish
“Pachamanca”.Thisdish is a local favorite
with marinated meat, vegetables, potatoes and spices, which is slowly cooked in
a hole in the ground, covered with hot stones.It was totally amazing!!!!This is where I tried my first Inca
Cola.Brandy (I called her Brittney most
of the time, and she let me get by with it), one of the trip coordinators from
Compassion, offered a challenge that she would try it if I tried it.How
could I turn down that challenge?I tried it and I can tell you “I am not a
fan”.The Pachamanca was better with
water!Well, there was another drink
offered but cannot recall the name but was presented as “The drink that will
restore the fate of your stomach”.How
could I turn that one down?I wanted my
stomach fate restored and this restoring tasted good as well.

After the wonderful meal we made our way to the Los Etayros
de CristoCompassion Child Sponsorship
project. At this project we were greeted
like the others with fanfare and spent most of our time visiting
classrooms.Toward the end of our visit
we had the privilege to meet with the high school age students.They were very interested in asking us questions
and wanted us to play games with them.This was a very special time and we all enjoyed getting more familiar
with each other’s cultures.What a
great wrap-up for the day.We returned
to the bus and headed back to the Hotel.

June 10, 2015

On this day we headed to Ebenezer Compassion Project.This was a well-established and large
Compassion project.It served over 300+
kids and had many skill development programs for the kids.They had a band where the kids learned to
play local instruments as well as culinary and cosmetology programs to teach
kidsskills.This is where I met my buddy Anderson.He was an amazing 12 year old Compassion kid
that could tear up the bamboo pipes (zampona).When I asked him how long he had been playing the pipes,he replied two months.He was really talented.He would have never had the opportunity to
learn to play if it were not for the Compassion program at this Church.He was sharing joy through music.

After spending the morning understanding more about all the
programs provided by Compassion sponsors, it was time for another family
visit.I get on the bus and there was
Anderson again.I was very hopeful that
I was assigned to visit his home and tried out my Spanish indicating I would
like to visit his home.Once I spoke it
in Spanish the translator started shaking her head and saying no, no no!What I had just told Anderson was “I want
your house”.Anderson saw my face of
horror when the translator told me what I said and he started laughing!Well God had plans for me to visit another
family.This visit was very special and
a blessing.

We had the honor to visit Liz and Stephanie and
parents.Just getting to their home was
a real hike.The Home was on a side of a
hill and to get to their home you climbed down a dirt path which led to their
home.It was so nice to meet the whole
family.Liz had a sponsor from
Australia but Stephanie’s sponsor had to stop sponsoring her and she is waiting
for a new sponsor.This visit really
opened my eyes to the effect that family gifts have on the family.Liz and Stephanie’s dad worked very hard as
a taxi driver and when he is not driving his taxi cab he workedon their home.They were squatters and they had to show
improvements being made on the home to keep living there.The mother took us around the home and
showed us all the items that they were able to purchase for the family as a
result of Liz sponsor’s family gifts.We are talking about a bed for the girls and dresser and blender and a
hutch for the kitchen.She was so
thankful for the gift and prayed for Liz’s sponsor every day.I would have loved to be able to talk with
that sponsor and tell him the impact he has made on that family.I wanted to just thank him my self for
keeping the hope flowing in this family.What an impact he is making in not only Liz’s life but the whole
family.If he saw the gratefulness in their
eye’s,I think he would be even more overwhelmed
than what I was experiencing in the visit.

Well during the visit we asked if the family attended church
regularly.This was when Liz began to
cry.This is when one of the adults in
the compassion group picked up on why she was crying and asked “Are you crying
because your family does not attend church?”.This is when the tears starting flowing from Liz, her parents and the
whole team.Liz’s heart’s desire was
for all of her family to attend church with her.Her mother opened up and told us that she
did not attend church because of a situation that occurred the last time she
attended.They were let down by the
church and it really impacted their family.What was really amazing was one of the individuals that accompanied us
from the Compassion Learning project was also a pastor and he had just started
a satellite church just a few 100 yards from where they lived.God had placed him in that home at that
moment to minister to the family.It was
so beautiful.When we left, the parents
saw the desire of their Liz and indicated they would give the new church a
try.We told them that they needed the
fellowship of the Church but just as important was that the Church needed their
talents to reach out to others as well.

Lord, I lift up Liz and her family that they may grow closer
to you through their fellowship of your church.I pray that you use the Pastor to help heal
their hearts and turn their hearts on fire for your work.

After the blessing of the Liz family visit, we provided
vacation bible school to the Compassion project.Our team provided crafts, sports, music, and
bible story/drama. Jan and I helped with the Bible Story/drama.For the young kids we used the Max Lucado
“Hermie – A Common Caterpillar”and had
the kids act out the story that presented the message that God had created us
all Extraordinary!This was so much fun
but then we were thrown a real curve ball.They wanted us to talk with the older children as well.In a panic we started trying to figure out
what we can do with the older kids.At
that moment,one of the Compassion
Sponsors indicated he would share his testimony.His testimony was around not dreaming with
God.It was very touching and he
challenged all of us to continue to dream with God and just imagine what you
can accomplish with Him.I went to Peru to minister to kids and God
used this message to speak to me and remind me that I need to dream bigger
because God is all I need to accomplish those dreams.Thank you Nick for being obedient to God and
sharing your testimony.I know that God
put you there at that time to minister to me!

The vacation bible school was the icing on the cake of our
Compassion Project visits.It was such
a blessing to meet all of the people that help with the projects and the
children and adults that are ministered to by the projects. We saw how sponsoring a child can change the
child, their family, and a whole village!Yes it is true.You can make a
difference in poverty by sponsoring a single child. I saw it with my own eyes!

June 11-12, 2015

Over the next two days we went sightseeing in Huancayo, flew
back to Lima, and took a tour of the Compassion Country Office.There are lots of memories but my heart was
looking forward to our last day in Peru.That was the day we would spend time with our sponsor child, Jorge, and
his mother.Well, I want to jump to
that day because it was the crescendo of the entire trip but I did want to
mention a few things about the Country Office Visit.

On this visit I saw the room that all our letters we send to
Jorge flow through.I met some of the
translators that work with the letters. They see their work as a blessing to
facilitate the relationship building of the Children/Sponsors.We also learned about the entire new
infrastructure they are putting in place to speed up the information sharing of
the children between the country office and projects.We learned that they are providing tools to
those projects that have some basic Internet connectivity to help facilitate
children’s needs.I learned that Compassion’s
desire is to improve the turn around time of all the letter writing.Compassion is spending a lot of effort to
support improved Sponsor/Child communications.As you learn on your first Compassion Project visits, the letters are
just as important as the medical care and the food.Those letters from the sponsors are the
life line of hope to the children and to their families.Compassion realizes that and are working hard
to improve the process even more.

June 13, 2015 – The Crescendo!

While each day in Peru was absolutely amazing, this day was
the day I had been waiting for since January, when the trip planning began.What is my boy like?The boy God has laid on my heart to pray for
each week.But what do I pray for?I will soon have the opportunity to ask him
and his mother that question.I will
soon get to see his personality and learn more about what he likes and what he
wants to do when he grows up.All these
questions and statements were floating in my head for some time.And the day was finally here.Let me start off by saying,God could not have blessed me any more.Meeting this little guy was more than I could
have ever imagined!

So where do I start?MaybeI should start when I first
got a glimpse of him from the distance.Compassion treated the Sponsors and the children to the Lima Zoo.It was a perfect place to get to know my
little guy.I was waiting, but not very
patiently, to get into the zoo when I
got my first glimpse of Jorge.As soon
as I saw him, he started to smile!Once
we got into the Zoo, he ran up to us and gave us a big hug.The mother hugged us as well.All my questions seemed to disappear.All I wanted to do was enjoy that contagious
smile of his.I just wanted to watch
him grab our hands and we started to walk.While walking through the zoo I learned so much about him.He loves to fish!His dad takes him fishing 3 times a week
(that is their main source of meat).He
fishes with worms!I learned that he
was the only one in his family that liked to fish.You could tell that the time he spent with
his dad fishing was very special with him.The boy can eat as well.He ate
what was equivalent to ½ of a chicken when we went to the restaurant.

We got to play checkers, the game Sorry and
my favorite thumb wrestle.During our
lunch he kept stepping on my foot under the table and then just grinned.

I learned that my little buddy wanted to be a doctor some
day.I tell you these compassion kids
dream big and I know God will honor those big dreams if they continue to seek
God in those dreams (thank you again Nick!)

While we spent a lot of time wrestling and picking on each
other we did have some serious time with Jorge and his mother.I learned that Jorge has not accepted Christ
yet.Well God gave me something specific
to pray about now and now I know what to write in my letters.I told Jorge that Christ was the answer to
all of life.It was Christ that connected
us and Christ that has provided the assistance that he gets through
Compassion.And yes it was Christ that
made all those fish he likes to catch.I
told him that he needed to listen at the compassion project more about Christ
and please ask his teacher/pastor if he has any questions.I am
so grateful for the Compassion Project because I know that they will teach
Jorge about my Savior.

I also learned that Jorge’s father will not step foot in the
Church.He feels that the people in
the local Church will judge him harshly because he may want to have a drink
every once in a while.Thank you God
for another specific thing to pray for.Another prayer request came from the mother.Jorge’s sister is 15 and is a single
mother.They need prayer in that
situation as well.God really loaded
me up on a list for prayer items for Jorge and his family.I would like to request that you too pray
for Jorge and his family as well.

While walking at the Zoo,I had another God moment that totally amazed me.I was asked by Jorge’s mother how I like
Peru.I was talking about all we had
seen and experienced and told her there was one thing it looked like I was not
going to experience, tasting the Peruvian delicacy of Guinea Pig.Yes I know you are probably saying“Ewww”.Yes I did want to try it.When
I said that, Jorge’s mother started smiling!She had smoked me three guinea pigs and brought them with her.I had been caring them around the zoo the
whole day.I would not have traded that
smile for anything.In Peru it is a
great honor to receive a Guinea Pig.It
is only for special occasions.She had
cooked me three of them!I felt
blessed.

Oh what an amazing day.It had come to the end but I was finding it real hard to turn loose of
Jorge.How can you feel like this with
someone you just met?I am supposed to
help him but this little fellow has just changed my life.How can this be so?This was a trip to show Jorge my family
loves him but instead my life has been totally blessed by just a few minutes
with him.I will pray for him and I
really hope I will be able to visit him again soon.

Thank you God for Compassion and the children they
serve!They can teach us sponsors a lot
and I saw this over a week in Peru.Thank you!